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Editor’s Note: It’s not unusual for UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences alums to begin impacting the global stage soon after their graduations, or even during graduate studies. Meet six alums who are doing just that in Africa, Jamaica, and in several former Soviet republics. Also included is a Niger-born UI graduate whose work with refugees seeking a new home in Boise has won him a prestigious humanitarian award.
Into Africa:
Alum helps Africans understand their soil needs
by MARLENE FRITZ
Leigh Winowiecki ’08
Costa Rica, Africa
“What makes it exciting is that
I can use my skills, deal with
those challenges, and see benefits
in a relatively short term.”
LEIGH WINOWIECKI ’08 (Ph.D., Soil and Land Resources/Tropical Agroforestry) now awakens to African sunrises and to her ever-deepening commitment to worldwide agricultural sustainability.
As a former doctoral student in the UI’s joint program with the Costa Rican Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Winowiecki cut her teeth in international science by examining nutrient cycling in cacao agroforestry systems, slash-and-burn agriculture, and local agricultural knowledge of indigenous farmers.
Now, as a postdoctoral researcher with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, she is contributing to the bold launch of a globally integrated Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS). She conducts needs assessments to establish regional soils labs in Mali, Malawi, and Tanzania and trains local staff in the application of new scientific technologies.
The Web-based digital soil map (www.africasoils.net) that AfSIS is building will enable poverty-alleviating improvements in land management in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 237 million people were chronically hungry in 2007. The effort is supported by a four-year, $18 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
Finding help for overused soils
“The soils here are very diverse and very old, and many have been over- used and stripped of organic matter,” Winowiecki says. Productivity drops in response to continuous cropping, overgrazing, deforestation, and erosion from cultivating steep slopes.
With over 80 percent of the Sub-Saharan population dependent directly on agriculture for its livelihood, Winowiecki says there’s “a dire need” for soil-sustaining land management strategies. Science-based interventions and effective information dissemination and on-farm research are “the only things that will work. “It’s so enlightening to be here and to talk with African scientists about the future of African agriculture,” she says.
“It’s so important to be on the continent when we come up with ideas, because it means ideas will be more practical.”
Her Costa Rican experience as a UI student taught Winowiecki the importance of “taking things slowly,” establishing relationships, and defining knowledge gaps in preparation for capacity building in developing nations. “If you want to introduce a new technique, you need to understand where the knowledge of indigenous farmers came from and provide a dialog,” she says.
When she enters an African village and sees “hard-working, happy, but hungry” people, Winowiecki’s thoughts turn quickly to how she can harness her skills on their behalf. “That’s really all I can do, because that is all I have to give them. There are a lot of needs in international agriculture. What makes it exciting is that I can use my skills, deal with those challenges, and see benefits in a relatively short term.”
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